Sony Pictures Imageworks Announces 08/09 Projects

Sony Pictures Imageworks has announced the six features the company is working on:

Sony Pictures Imageworks, the award-winning digital production company whose most recent project HANCOCK opens July 2nd, today announced six major motion picture projects that are currently in production at the facility.

Earlier this year, Sony Pictures Imageworks completed work on the live-action SPEED RACER for Warner Bros. Pictures. In this high-octane family film, Imageworks created three racing sequences; the Desert Rally, Mountain Switchback and Snakes Demise.

Imageworks is also working on OPEN SEASON 2, Sony Pictures Animations sequel to the $190 million hit OPEN SEASON for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Each of these films presents unique stories and characters that challenge and inspire Imageworks artists.

There are heroes there are superheroes and then theres Hancock (Will Smith). With great power comes great responsibility  everyone knows that  everyone, that is, but Hancock. Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancocks well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough  as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isnt the kind of man who cares what other people think  until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancocks greatest challenge yet  and a task that may prove impossible as Rays wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), insists that hes a lost cause. John Dykstra, visual effects designer for HANCOCK, has won Academy Awards® for SPIDER-MAN 2 (2005 Best Achievement in Visual Effects) and STAR WARS (1978 Best Effects, Visual Effects) along with nominations for his work on SPIDER-MAN, STUART LITTLE and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. Ken Kee-Suk Hahn is the digital effects supervisor for Imageworks. Hahn most recently served as the digital effects supervisor on SPIDER-MAN 3. HANCOCK is directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and produced by Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, Michael Mann and Will Smith.

EAGLE EYE is a race-against-time thriller starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie and Billy Bob Thornton. Two unsuspecting Americans are separately drawn into a conspiracy by a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. By the time they discover her frightening identity, they have become her unwitting accomplices in a diabolical assassination plot. EAGLE EYE is directed by D.J. Caruso (DISTURBIA) and produced by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Patrick Crowley. Edward McDonnell serves as executive producer. Imageworks Academy Award® nominee Jim Berney will serve as visual effects supervisor with David Smith as digital effects supervisor and Bob Pietzman as CG supervisor.

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, WATCHMEN is set in an alternate 1985 America  in which costumed superheroes are not only real but have ultimately been outlawed  in which one former hero goes looking for the truth behind the murder of one of his own, but uncovers a devastating conspiracy to drag the world implacably closer to its own end. Imageworks Pete Travers, a longtime fan of the graphic novel, is the films visual effects supervisor, with Dan Kramer as the digital effects supervisor, and Kenn McDonald, who most recently worked on BEOWULF, will serve as the animation supervisor. WATCHMEN is directed by Zack Snyder (300) and produced by Lawrence Gordon (DIE HARD), Lloyd Levin (UNITED 93) and Deborah Snyder (300), with Herbert W. Gains serving as executive producer. It is based on the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award and to be named among TIME Magazines 100 Best English Language Novels from 1923 to the Present.

The UNTITLED RIDLEY SCOTT FILM based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius 2007 novel about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan. When Ferris devises a plan to infiltrate his network, he must first win the backing of cunning CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) and the collegial, but perhaps suspect, head of Jordanian intelligence. Although ostensibly his allies, Ferris questions how far he can really trust these men without putting his entire operation  and his life  on the line. Imageworks Sheena Duggal will serve as the films visual effects supervisor along with John Monos as CG supervisor.

From Jerry Bruckheimer Productions comes G-FORCE for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Hoyt Yeatman, Academy Award winner for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, this live-action/CG family feature follows an elite team of highly trained covert agents employing unique tactics and nano-technology must avert a looming global disaster. The Imageworks team is led by Academy Award®-winning visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk. Stokdyk has worked on all three SPIDER-MAN movies, including the recent blockbuster SPIDER-MAN 3. He won the 2005 Oscar® for Achievement in Visual Effects for his work on SPIDER-MAN 2, and was nominated for SPIDER-MAN in 2002. Stokdyk received his first Oscar® nomination in 2000 as Digital Effects Supervisor for the creation of the incredible disappearing man and gorilla in HOLLOW MAN. The G-FORCE crew also includes digital effects supervisor Seth Maury and animation supervisor Troy Saliba. Imageworks will also be delivering the 3D Stereoscopic version of the film, led by Rob Engle, senior stereographer & digital effects supervisor at Imageworks.

Bringing a fresh and surprise-filled take to a world people only thought they knew, Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, X-MEN, SUPERMAN RETURNS) re-teams with his Academy Award®-winning USUAL SUSPECTS screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie on VALKYRIE, a suspense thriller based on the true story of the daring and ingenious plot to assassinate the most monstrous villain the world has ever known. Tom Cruise heads an internationally acclaimed ensemble that includes Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel, Thomas Kretschmann, Terrance Stamp and acclaimed stage actress Carice Van Houten. VALKYRIE, a United Artists production, will be released by MGM. Imageworks Academy Award® nominee Rich Hoover will serve as senior visual effects supervisor along with CG supervisors Peter Nofz, Dan Eaton, Theo Bialek and Patrick Witting.

Boog and Elliot are back for more crazy adventures. After falling head over hooves in love with Giselle, Elliot’s road to the altar takes a slight detour when Mr. Weenie is kidnapped by a group of pampered pets determined to return him to his owners. Boog, Elliot, McSquizzy, Buddy and the rest of the woodland creatures launch a full-scale rescue mission for their sausage-shaped friend and soon find themselves in enemy camp: the world of the pets. Led by a toy poodle named Fifi, the pets do not plan to let Mr. Weenie go without a fight. Can a toy poodle REALLY bring down a 900-pound grizzly bear? Will Elliot ever marry Giselle? Find out in OPEN SEASON 2.

From the Wachowski brothers and producer Joel Silver, creators of the groundbreaking THE MATRIX trilogy, comes the live-action, high-octane film SPEED RACER, which follows the adventures of the young racecar driver Speed (Emile Hirsch) in his quest for glory in his thunderous Mach 5. Joel Silver, who previously worked with the Wachowski brothers on THE MATRIX movies and V FOR VENDETTA, produced the film under his Silver Pictures banner. Grant Hill, Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski are also producers. David Lane Seltzer, Michael Lambert and Bruce Berman are the executive producers. The film stars Emile Hirsch; Christina Ricci; John Goodman; Susan Sarandon; Matthew Fox; Benno Fürmann; Hiroyuki Sanada; Asian pop superstar Rain, making his American feature film debut; and Richard Roundtree. The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production, in association with Anarchos Productions. Imageworks Academy Award® winning visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack oversaw this project along with Peter Nofz serving as digital effects supervisor.